i VERY much like the look of this.. my suggestion would be to remove the "doc" behind it... i like the visual appeal and the compositional aspects it enhances, but - unless the icon is set at this size - it might become confusing.

wow very clear cut, beautiful piece, beastiful greys. The shado at the bottom in normal view does look a little odd however but I noticed in the full view this becomes a subtle circle gradient (also blue background). Any reason why these are different?

Nice work though, admire your style!

Whats Sodipodi by the way? Some sort of vector software and if so whats it like to use?

The shadow probably looks like that because the .png file in the full view has a transparency layer which the DA preview generator must not handle correctly (if you're not using Internet Exlplorer you can see the DA green show through in the full view). This was actually unintentional - I exported the .png from Sodipodi directly instead of putting it into Photoshop and optimizing it like I normally do (it was late, I was feeling lazy ).

As for Sodipodi, yes its a vector software - [link] . It creates .SVG images. I have now switched to inkscape ( [link] ), however, because I find it more stable, better laid-out and has more features. Inkscape is very similar to Sodipodi though because it is a derivative project. I have never used Illustrator, so I don't exactly know how the programs comapare, though I suspect that illustrator would have many more features not only because it is a commercial app, but also because all Sodipodi and Inskape are both SVG standards-compliant.

Even still, they are excellent programs. If you're using Windows I recommend Inkscape because I find it more stable, and it doesn't require GTK+. It does take some getting used to, I think, but once you know how to handle it it's awesome. Inkscape also comes with some tutorials in the help menu.

By the way - I have created more icons like this one, and I think I will continue to make more. Not sure if I will ever get enough to make a full icon set, but its fun anyways . If you'd like to see them I've uploaded them at [link]